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Wednesday, April 29, 2015

CLEARING HER NAME

Darcie Pickren’s conviction has been set aside, but the bad feelings have not

Darcie Pickren, in court with her attorney James Hunt and Antrim County Prosecuting Attorney Charles Koop, on the left.
Darcie
Pickren recently got something she’s wanted for 20 years -- a felony
conviction for attempting to hire someone to beat up her ex-husband was
expunged.
As far as the police and the courts and the
prosecutors are concerned, from now on, the case never happened. Go to
the courthouse and ask to see the case file. They won’t give it to you.
They won’t even acknowledge the file ever existed. The case, by order of
a judge, has been erased from history.
But Pickren is
not content to leave the matter alone. She wants to talk about it at
least one more time. She believes the fact she won the fight to make her
conviction vanish is a vindication.
When the charges
were filed in 1991, she was embroiled in a bitter divorce with her
thenhusband, Mark Fleet. Things got ugly. There were accusations back
and forth.
Amid the turmoil a child accused Mark Fleet of sexual abuse.
But
it was Pickren who stood trial after an undercover police officer
posing as a hit man said Pickren offered to pay him to kill Mark Fleet.
She was convicted of a lessor charge and her children were removed and placed with the estranged husband.
Now, 20 years later, Mark Fleet is in prison, serving a long sentence for criminal sexual conduct.
And Darcie Pickren is free. And her record is clean.
READ MORE:http://www.northernexpress.com/michigan/article-5725-clearing-her-name.html